Marvel is reportedly bringing back a baddie from the first Marvel Cinematic Universe film Iron Man in the upcoming Vision Quest series.
According to Deadline, Faran Tahir will reprise his role of Raza Hamidmi al-Wazar from the opening sequences of Iron Man after almost two decades. He was the leader of an Afghanistan terrorist group who kept Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark captive in a cave before being betrayed by Jeff Bridges’ Obadiah Stane.
Raza Hamidmi al-Wazar hasn’t appeared since that opening 30 minutes of 2008’s Iron Man but, just like The Incredible Hulk’s Samuel Sterns showing up in Captain America: Brave New World, he’ll make his MCU return in the near future. Vision Quest, which stars Paul Bettany as White Vision following the events of WandaVision, has no release window as of yet.
While Hamidmi al-Wazar was the head of a seemingly generic terrorist group at the time, his lore deepened years later in Phase 4 of the MCU. The group was briefly mentioned as the Ten Rings, and while Marvel likely didn’t plan much beyond this subtle reference to comic book lore at the time, 2021’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings expanded upon it significantly.
Hamidmi al-Wazar was therefore (presumably) retroactively written in as a commander of the Ten Rings organization operating its Afghanistan terrorist group, and as Shang-Chi itself left plenty open for a continuation, it’s therefore possible it will be connected with Vision Quest through the returning character.
Just like how Deadpool & Wolverine explored the wackier parts of the scrapped Fox Marvel universe, however, it’s possible Vision Quest could be looking to do the same with forgotten elements of the official MCU.
Ultron actor James Spader is also reportedly set to return for the first time since the second Avenger’s film, though practically nothing else is known about the show as of yet.
Image Credit: Jeffrey Mayer/WireImage
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.
